Galaxy 6 May Transatlantic Review

[jodisue]

Just got back into the U.S. yeserday after a great cruise on Galaxy!

 

First off, I didn't meet up with any other Cruise Critics -- we didn't make the first meeting because I misremembered the time on the invite, and then we just kind of did our own thing after that -- my apologies!! For anyone that was at the last team trivia session in the Stratosphere, I was the girl who knew the answer to the question about marijuana. :D Everyone looked to see who knew the answer, and I heard some comments about having our bags searched extra good at customs. It was all in fun, though. :)

 

The Ship - I was honestly a bit worried about Galaxy's condition after spending time on these boards before leaving, but there was nothing to worry about. Overall, I was very impressed with how she looked after 10 years of hosting all those people. Things were worn, yes, but not overly so, and nothing out of the ordinary. I do know they closed the T-Pool towards the last couple days of the cruise for maintenance, but I wasn't using it anyway. The toilets stopped working once, for probably a half an hour, and I was worried, but they fixed it quickly. We had an aft cabin and the vibration was noticable when we were slowing down, coming into port, but other than that we were fine.

 

Cabin - As I said, were were aft, on the 8th deck, ocean view. It seemed much roomier than the OV we had on HAL three years ago. Our stateroom attendant Efren was wonderfully unobtrusive once he figured out that we tend to sleep in late and hang out in our room in the morning.

 

Food - I was at the Orion every night for dinner, and it was great. I cannot say enough good things about our server Ricardo and his assistant Jefferson. They were friendly and professional, and made our dinners excellent every night. We had the best table I could have asked for and the service was outstanding. They tended to cook the beef less than what I would have liked (i.e. I had to order a medium to get a medium rare), and my husband and another guy at our table got a pair of barely-cooked steaks one time that they sent back (which was no problem). One woman at our table missed the night that they had tiramisu for dessert, and she asked the asst. maitre'd about it the next night (it was her favorite dessert). He said he would see what he could do, and a couple nights later, our table got tiramisu in addition to whatever we wanted from the menu. On the last night of the cruise, they brought out two cups of tiramisu for her, and one for each of us again.

The buffet was hit and miss. I had wonderful meals there, and so-so meals there. Things usually tasted better than they looked. I liked the pasta from the pasta bar, but it was usually a little too greasy. The waffles were superb, I just wish the waffle bar stayed open one extra hour (it closed at 10 a.m.). I got my share of burgers poolside on 11, and they were always good.

 

Entertainment - It was okay. The Celebrity Singers and Dancers seemed to work very hard, but were not always good enough to pull off the difficult numbers they attemped (Don't Cry for me Argentina, and Granada come to mind). I loved the "Elements" show. The adage duo (Zoltan and Mercedes) were amazing. The arialist (sp?) was good, but not fantastic. Fred Klatt was a great comedian, Jack Walker was good, and I know I'm fogetting some others.

Paul Tosh was good, but got a little tiring after 16 days of hearing him.

The Celebrity Orchestra was excellent.

The activities staff was great fun...Misty and Kevin happened to be my favorite on the staff.

 

Ports/Excursions - Our excursions were fantastic (Rainbow Reef snorkeling in Nassau and Furnas Valley in the Azores). I wish we had done more excursions instead of trying to do Lisbon and Mallorca on our own, but that was okay too. Everyone at my table enjoyed their excursions immensely. Debarkation in Mallorca was not great. It seemed as though everyone that bought a shuttle ticket was also given a "priority" shuttle pass. I'm not sure why, but there was nothing priority about how long it took us to debark. We were also late because of port traffic, but I know that's not Celebrity's fault. The best excursion we had was the Azores, it was so beautiful there.

 

Service - Overall, it was excellent, but some that worked various buffet lines and poolside seemed a bit sloppy. I overheard someone saying the the Galaxy was an "easy" ship to work on because management was not very strict. There were sometimes long lines for the buffets (especially late breakfast). I always had to wait for a towel poolside (the bins were never stocked), but it could have been my bad luck. Bar service did tend to get intrusive sometimes.

 

It was a great vacation overall...I was impressed with Celebrity, and I'd sail them again, and I'd sail on the Galaxy again.

[Texed]

Thanks for the nice review.:)

[BrooklynGirl2]

Thanks you so much for the fair and balanced review. Sounds like you had a really good time and had good weather. I hope someday to do a transatlantic. Was this your first X cruise?

[jodisue]

Yes, the weather was excellent! We had one day at sea that was cold and rainy, but DH and I solved that problem by hopping into the warm, bubbly jacuzzi! It was one of the moments I enjoyed the most -- being in the middle of the Atlantic on a cold, rainy day and being able to be cozy and warm outside in the hot tub!

 

It was my first cruise with X, my first being with HAL for my honeymoon in '03. Comparing the two is hard because my first cruise was My First Cruise and my Honeymoon, so it was wonderful. I think, though, that Celebrity has a tad younger crowd and the activities were definitely more fun and had more participation.

[Longboysfan]

First off, I didn't meet up with any other Cruise Critics -- we didn't make the first meeting because I misremembered the time on the invite, and then we just kind of did our own thing after that -- my apologies!! For anyone that was at the last team trivia session in the Stratosphere, I was the girl who knew the answer to the question about marijuana. :D Everyone looked to see who knew the answer, and I heard some comments about having our bags searched extra good at customs. It was all in fun, though. :)

 

 

Who ran the trivia? Mike was doing it when I was on way back in February.

 

You should post the review over in the review link section.

[Arubalisa]

It was my first cruise with X, my first being with HAL for my honeymoon in '03. Comparing the two is hard because my first cruise was My First Cruise and my Honeymoon, so it was wonderful. I think, though, that Celebrity has a tad younger crowd and the activities were definitely more fun and had more participation.

Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with you that X has a younger clientele and better activities. We thought the food and service were good on the Zaandam, but much better on the Galaxy. On HAL's part my parents said it was just the Zaadam, their other HAL cruise was perfect, but then again, being in their mid-60's they were some of the youngest aboard for a transatlantic :cool: voyage.

[reklawr]

Jodisue, Thanks for the review of our favorite ship. :D

 

Isn't it interesting how many people post that Galaxy is for basically falling apart? :confused:

[Arubalisa]

Isn't it interesting how many people post that Galaxy is for basically falling apart? :confused:

Unfortunately, once the reviews of the "new" Century begin coming in, the comparisons are going to become A LOT worse. All you have to do is look at some of the pics posted at the link in the sticky at the top of the forum and it will make the Galaxy look like the poor forgotten sister wearing rags. :( Me gets the feeling we haven't heard the worst of it [bad Galaxy reviews] yet :eek:

[reklawr]

Unfortunately, once the reviews of the "new" Century begin coming in, the comparisons are going to become A LOT worse. All you have to do is look at some of the pics posted at the link in the sticky at the top of the forum and it will make the Galaxy look like the poor forgotten sister wearing rags. :( Me gets the feeling we haven't heard the worst of it [bad Galaxy reviews] yet :eek:

 

You're probably right that the bad reviews of Galaxy will increase when the new Century sails.

 

All of our Celebrity cruise experiences have been wonderful.

Maybe its because we make it wonderful.

Perhaps its because I have a great cruising partner.

 

Not one negative review posted here on CC (and I've read a lot of them) has changed my mind about how much fun we had and how much we enjoyed our cruises.

[OVgirl]

Glad to hear that you enjoyed your cruise.

We have booked our first cruise on Galaxy for Feb.07.

Previously we have sailed on Hal. It is reasurring to hear

good things about Galaxy. It makes me a little nervous

when I read some of the negative threads.

I am definately looking forward to trying a new cruiseline.

[jodisue]

You have nothing to worry about! Galaxy is in good shape.

 

Interestingly enough, when we were all in Rendez-vous Square for boat drill, I overheard one lady saying how Galaxy was an old rusty bucket of bolts, and they didn't even have (horrors!) teak decking!! This was at boat drill, mind you, so I'm thinking she obviously formed her opinion before even getting on the ship. In her defense, boat drill was the day after embarkation because of the late arrivals of some pax, so she had one whole night to form her opinion.

 

I loved Galaxy.

 

--Jodi

[greydog]

Hi JodiSue:

Agree with you - we had wonderful Galaxy TA trip with you. :D I made both Connections parties where about 30-35 attended out of 74 registrants. Some missed as carryover effect of the disruptions on sailing day due to airport weather problems.

 

I'll be posting my own review in a day or two. It will be "antidote" to the plethora of negative postings lately about 'X' lately. Bye.

[crazy4cruzin]

Thanks for the positive review. We are looking forward to sailing on the Galaxy July 14. We will go on the cruise with an open mind and positive attitude. There is yet to be a cruise that I didn't enjoy!

[keela1eva2]

Like some of the others I had misgivings about Galaxy but I was surprised to find her in better shape than expected.

My room an inside grade 9 had good bed and bedding carpet in good condition as was everything in the cabin.

The sink in the bathroom had a stain but the ship is 10 years old and if you spill certain things on sinks they will mark. Eg bleach etc.

The shower curtain and the tiling were fine nothing whatsoever to complain about.

The ship I thought was in good condition and I could not fault anything. The service and the food were fantastic. I had a great time and whilst I was travelling alone I found this liberating!

I attended the first CC party but didn't the 2nd as I was busy at that time. Did see the others around the ship from time to time and they were friendly.

Spend some time with JoJo and Nana both great characters. Also Els and Reta who I emailed a lot prior to the cruise I did spend some time with them. We were both busy doing different things and whilst I did see them on the last day didn't on the arrival in Rome. I was sorry about that as I would have liked to say goodbye.

I have booked Century for the 25th September. Looking forward to seeing her all new and shiny!

Initially I thought my sister would go but I have booked now just for myself but a good friend has now decided to go and she has booked a balcony but will have also single occupancy. We think that we will do the flights ourselves as it is only a 2 hr flight to Barcelona.

We are also going the day before and will transfer by taxi to the hotel and then a taxi to the ship in the morning.

 

Should go well have just confirmed both bookings with my T/A this am.